ISTI MIRANT STELLA

Ordering takeout

Playing games on your phone, especially the ones that involve blowing up tiny pieces of fruit

Reading “Lean In” unironically

“Grown-up” parodies of beloved children’s books

Bluetooth anything

Shower radios

Having a microwave/TV at home

Lush bath bombs

Seriously, WHY ARE ADULT PEOPLE SO OBSESSED WITH GLITTERY BATHS

The word “adulting”

Subscription box services

Meal-in-a-box kit services

Installing the Yelp app on my phone (even if I need to use Yelp a lot)

Starbucks

New cars

Gourmet hot sauce

It’s 2016!!! What a trip. I’m still writing 2017 on all my checks because my brain is in publishing time and I have no idea what year it is.

Anyway! My job is to acquire books but I can’t do it without your help, O Lovely Writers. Here are some things I’m extra-keen to find in my inbox. You can read the Quirk Books submissions guidelines here.

A GRAPHIC NOVEL. Please! I particularly love female-driven narratives (think Nimona, or Giant Days, or Lumberjanes...basically anything that Boom Studios does is super up my alley)

Chick lit for millennials. Chick lit qua chick lit doesn’t really exist anymore, but I’d love to see something that breathes new life into the category with a story/characters/situations that appeal to the Twenty-Something Woman Of Today™. Hilarious dating misadventures and career floundering are evergreen—just make your version fresh.

A social-media thriller or mystery. The internet seems ripe for turning into some kind of whodunit and I would love to see a mystery story that cleverly integrates ~social media~.

A YA Divorce Papers or Dear Committee Members. There’s tons of possibility here, folks. Playing with form is the bomb! (Do kids still say that?) I’d love to see a case file for all the wacky details of some teenage caper.

Nonfiction about women in history, nerdy stuff, and/or millennials. I can’t believe I’ve used “millennials” twice in this list, but these are my biggest areas of interest in nonfiction right now. 

Love stories with unusual narrative forms. Like Rainbow Rowell’s Attachments, Jennifer E. Smith’s The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, or Daniel Handler’s Why We Broke Up—for example. 

Hello, book-types! Long time, no tumbl. As summer wanes (haha jk it’s a billion degrees we are all going to melt and die) and I dutifully read through my submissions pile, I am back here to bombard you with my manuscript wishlist.

Cool fact: Quirk Books takes unsolicited (unagented!) submissions! Gaze upon our submissions guidelines here.

Fiction

For YA: contemporary romantic comedies, especially with a fun high concept. Think classic Meg Cabot (girl save President’s life and falls in love with his son! Model and nerd-girl switch bodies!)

Alternatively: fun contemporary YA stories about female friendships! Romance optional. I’d love to see hilarious, voice-driven coming of age stories as part of a larger overall narrative.

Retellings (Shakespeare, classic Lit, Greek myth, what have you) with a fresh and truly-actually-new setting or twist, especially if it’s a story with...

...something geeky or pop-culturey as a setting or plot element! Cosplaying! E-sports tournaments! Renaissance faires (oh please oh please). Quirk Books readers are total nerrrrrrds and I live to serve.

A YA crime caper book, especially if things start to get screwball comedy-y. I love a good heist.

Nonfiction

Books for/about snake people and the challenges of adulting

Subcategory to the former: funny and/or tongue-in-cheek books about women ~having it all~

Satirical/parody how-tos (like our Internet Cat and Internet Baby books) especially if the humor gets real real absurd and delightful

The first Hunger Games movie

Quirk Books

My medieval studies degree (while pursuing it)

My medieval studies degree (after graduation)

Geoffrey Chaucer and his affinity for fart jokes

The bag of ice they gave me to hold (???)

Whether or not I am allowed to go lie down

Please can’t I just go lie down

“Your lips look really white!”

The save icon in Microsoft Word

The expression “front page news”

The idea of a phone “line”

The idea of “airtime”

S.W.A.K.

Using # to represent actual poundages of things (i.e., 25#)

“Don’t Touch That Dial!”*

The riddle “what’s black and white and read all over?”**

Pennies***